Senji, immortalized by Desing's ballad, still popular in South India, is a significant place in Tamil Nadu. Successively occupied by the Hindus of Vijayanagar, the Nayakas, the Muslims of Bijapur, the Marathas, the Mughals and finally by the French in 1750, it was, at the end of the 16th century, one of the biggest cities of the peninsula. This site is particularly interesting for the student of military architecture, because it is the only one in India where a full sequence of the defence systems used in the subcontinent, from the Vijayanagar period to the European conquest, can be observed. It is also the only one where we can follow, for at least four centuries, the adaptation of the defence to the progress of artillery. The book includes a summary in English.